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China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) approved a draft framework for a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea on Thursday.

The guidelines, which are regarded as a milestone, were passed during a two-day meeting of senior officials in Guiyang, the capital city of China's southwest Guizhou Province.

Liu Zhenmin, vice foreign minister of China, stated during yesterday's press conference that the guidelines have taken every related party and their interests into consideration.

Liu did not reveal any details of the document, saying both the ten ASEAN member states and China agreed to treat it as an internal file.

But he stressed that while it was crafted under the principles and spirit of the “Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea”, there will eventually be an “enhanced version” of the declaration.

In 2002, ASEAN member states and China agreed to a document known as the “Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea”. They started working on the Conduct Code in 2013 in a bid to enforce the dispute-resolving declaration.

Tensions have long existed in the South China Sea as China and and a number of ASEAN member countries, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, all claim sovereignty over various parts of the area, which is resource-rich and facilitates huge volumes of trade.